May is mental health month. A month that can help foster hope for anyone that has or has had a mental illness. Far too often the word mental illness has brought about feelings of shame, fear, and guilt. In reality, mental illness is far more complex than just those negative feelings. Mental health is a concept that deserves more attention…
Many of us struggle with knowing when or what to say when our family or loved ones has experienced a traumatic event. We found this article from Michael S. Scheering, M.D. who has provided us with “16 Tips For Talking With Children After A School Shooting” to be helpful: (click here for full article) “16 Tips for Talking With Children…
The holidays are stressful, few would deny that. With each coming holiday season, there are presents to get, food to buy, family to prepare for, and as always the crazy holiday traffic or airfare hikes. The way this nation handles the holidays is full of stress, raising tensions, followed by empty bank accounts.
According to oxforddictionary.com empathy is the “ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” Empathy sounds like a basic concept that most understand but empathy is much more complicated than most assume. Most people give an example of empathy as relating to another person who has gone through a similar experience. An example of this is a person who…
The term bullying use to refer to the stereotypical big kid picking on the smaller kid in school. Today the term bullying can cover a much broader areas of behavior that children engage in that involves real or perceived imbalance of power such as teasing, name calling, spreading rumors, social isolation, and threats of violence.
As a parent we are always worrying about the health of our children. We worry about their safety, education, and physical health. What we sometimes miss are the little innuendos in their moods and behaviors that can be from something more serious. Children, adolescents, and teens can have behavior and mood changes if they are being bullied by their peers.
What is stress? According to Merriam Webster, stress is a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in life or work.
Helping a friend in crisis starts with knowledge. So a good starting point is to educate yourself on the topic. It’s also important to remember, a state of crisis can happen to anyone….seriously.
As a teenager, communicating effectively with your parents may be a challenging task to do. You (as the teenager) want to be heard and responded to with respect. But how do you accomplish that?
Q: What is narrative therapy? A: Narrative is a postmodern, collaborative, and non-pathologizing therapy. It recognizes the client as the expert in the room and focuses on what narrative therapists call the client’s “insider knowledge”. Narrative therapy looks at the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and how these stories impact our well-being.